Earth 420: Iron Man
by Earth-420
Summary: Tony Stark enjoys a life of luxury, his engineering genius netting him millions and landing him a spot as king of the weapons industry. But when an Asian terror group takes interest in Tony's new War Machine armor, his life, and outlook on it, change forever.


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Tony Stark stepped towards the metal suit, admiring his reflection on the polished metal. It was the same height as Tony and was painted with a flashy red and gold color scheme.

"What's this?" James Rhodes asked. James was a Lieutenant Colonel in the US military, and one of the few people Stark considered a friend.

"Remember those military robots that were in production a year ago?" Tony asked, taking a sip of one of many high-class alcoholic beverages around his workshop.

"Yeah." Rhodes replied. "They were too hard to control to be effective."

"Because they were controlled remotely." Stark added. With this, the suit came to life, its visor opening. James stepped closer to the suit, looking inside. "It's controlled by onboard AI, and powered with an arc reactor."

"How long have you been working on this?" Rhodes asked, turning back to his friend.

"Oh, a couple of months." Stark shrugged. "Got the idea from BattleBots."

"And, knowing you, I'm guessing this thing is armed to the teeth?" Rhodes laughed.

"JARVIS, show him." Tony said smugly. The suit lifted up a hand, firing a blast from the repulsor installed in its palm. Several small missiles peeked out of their metal prisons within the suit, and one large one emerged in-between the thrusters on the back of the suit.

"Damn." Rhodes said under his breath. "It's like a killing machine."

"War Machine." Tony corrected. "I'm selling them as War Machines."

"Are you seriously going to sell these?" Rhodes asked with an discrediting voice. "What would happen if these got into the wrong hands?"

"That's not my concern." Tony stated. "I've made one to give to the army, but the rest are for sale."

Three days later, in the streets of New York City, Tony Stark was sitting in a limo, on his way to an expo to advertise his new War Machine product when the front half of the luxury car exploded. There was a flash of light and a huge, explosive boom, and everything was blank. When the light faded and the ringing subsided, Tony found himself in the middle of a street covered in blood, glass, and pieces of metal. Five men wearing black body armor and hoods moved through the evacuated cars, abandoned in the middle of the street, surrounding the philanthropist. One of them had a very elaborate golden dragon decoration on his armor. He walked up to Tony, picking him up by the collar of his dress shirt, stained red with blood.

"You come with us, you make us War Machines, you live." He hissed in a very obvious Asian accent. He let go of Tony's collar and ordered two of his henchmen to pick the man up. They propped Stark's arms onto their shoulders, and the leader examined his wounds. Stark was bleeding heavily, and had already begun falling back out of consciousness.

All of the men turned as a large metallic _CLUNK_ sounded from behind Stark. It was a War Machine suit, made out of shining chrome, complete with a machine gun mounted on the shoulder. The barrel of the machine gun began to spin, spewing bullets at the hooded men. They dropped Stark, pulling out weapons and opening fire on the War Machine. Their bullets had no effect on the armor though, simply bouncing right off. The hooded men wore bullet-proof body armor, but their face, hands and throat were all exposed, and all but one fell to the machine gun fire quickly.

The boss fled, sliding over cars and sprinting into an alleyway. War Machine activated the thrusters on his boots, flying over the cars and into the alleyway. The lead assailant found himself at a dead end, and turned to face the War Machine. The pilot of the armor raised a hand, hitting the boss square in the chest with a repulsor blast. He smashed into the dumpster behind him, bending the metal with his impact, the force of which knocked him out.

War Machine hurried back into the street, picking Stark up from the puddle of glass and blood he was laying in. He activated the thrusters of his suit, flying to the nearest hospital as soon as possible.

Three days later, James Rhodes traveled to the hospital Tony was at to visit him.

"How is he doing?" Rhodes asked the doctor, looking at Stark through the glass window. He had a pipe sticking out of his mouth, and some cuts and bruises, but besides that he seemed fine.

"He's holding up very well." The doctor stated. "We were able to replace the lost skin and blood quite easily, and there was surprisingly little bone damage. The real problem is the damage that was dealt to his heart and lungs. He can't breathe or circulate his blood on his own right now, and the damage seems to be permanent. He won't be able to leave the hospitable until we find replacement organs."

"May I go speak with him?" Rhodes asked. The doctor nodded, and James walked into Tony's room.

"Hey Rhodey." Stark said, looking a bit defeated in his hospital bed.

"I piloted the War Machine armor." Rhodes stated, taking a seat next to Tony. "It was amazingly powerful. Tony, you can't be selling this stuff."

"I'm glad to see you were concerned about my health." Tony muttered in a cold, sarcastic voice.

"Tony… I'm sorry. You know I care about you, man. But this is important."

"What's more important to me is getting out of this damn hospital bed." Stark spoke. "Any way you can convince them to let me go back home?"

"You're on life support, Tony." James reminded his friend.

"I've been on the phone with JARVIS. We made a War Machine suit that will sustain my needs as long as I wear it. All I need to do is get in it." Tony announced.

"We could always bribe them." Rhodes suggested.

"As if the medical bill wasn't enough." Stark sighed. "Fuck it, I've got a couple billion in reserve. Let's go."


End file.
